Thanksgiving

The kids were off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this week, so it has been sorta crazy at our house. Seems like whenever the Holidays come around everyone is more grumpy, tired and fighting with each other! Thankfully the weather was super-nice with no snow so we have played a lot outside! Tristan has been practicing basketball skills, and Melina, Mara and Asher have been playing tag. Delaney has been growing and sleeping a lot and has really slimmed down again (crazy, she didn't weigh anything to begin with), so I am having a hard time getting clothes to fit her! Miss laurel started walking and is walking more than crawling these days! She is still a bit unsteady but trying very hard.
Unfortunately the garage door broke and the springs had to be replaced. Just frustrates me that when you are trying to save it always bakefires with some repair that needs to ne done.
Thursday for Thanksgiving we had the Palizzi's over. (She took our recent family pics). They have 3 little boys. We had tons of great food and the kids played until 7pm! I think everyone had a good time and we were so grateful to have friends over to celebrate the holiday. We are incredibly grateful for our home, Josh's job and healthy children.
We got a new Stake President this past Sunday too. He is a wonderful man whom we have known the past few years. We will miss Pres. Nye but we are happy to get to know Pres. Pence better and see him lead our stake. We love his family too. It was interesting to watch the change process and also to attend a session with question and answer by the Presiding General Authority. People asked a lot of questions; mostly about overcoming weakness, exaltation, and life after death...
I went to Walmart Thursday night for a deal. Stupid. Thankfully I got in and out in 45 minutes. Some people, not so lucky. And, since most violence was at Walmarts around the country, I am glad I arrived and left safely. Friday Josh and I took the kids to do their shopping for each other in the early afternoon when things had died down a bit. They had fun, but were incredibly indecisive about picking a toy/item for the person they had drawn.
Yesterday we stayed home and played until the late evening and then we ran an errand to Menards to finally fix our broken toilet seats ;o( and eat at Long John Silver's for dinner. It is starting to cool off today but no snow is forecasted. This is reminiscent of our first year here in Iowa and we had a newborn and the weather was gorgeous. I don't think we had snow until Christmas that year.
Today our fish died. RIP Tritan. I am so bad at caring for fish. He lived about 8 months.....UGH. I am debating on whether or not to get another one. I felt so heartsick when I saw him this morning. Over a fish! I am crazy!

sneak peak of our Christmas card......

Seasonal Chic Christmas Card

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Big families

Last year for Christmas the boys got these building blocks. Finally this year we have used them. Asher and Daddy made a ship above and Tristan and daddy made a bridge to fulfill one of his Webelos requirements in Engineering.

This week has been yet another typical/crazy week at our house. The babe is cutting like 6 teeth and has had diarrhea, runny nose, cough all week. Monday Mel stayed home from school because she puked all night and did not let me sleep at all. Mel is a violent/loud puker and its not pretty. At least she made it to the toilet. Usually it is all down the wall, on her clothes, in her hair, covering the carpet. Monday was also Mom's day at preschool for Delaney, so good Mom that I am :o) I went and left food, my cell number and my neighbor to check in on Mel while I was gone. She did great and acted like she was meant to stay home alone all along. She even got all her homework done :o)

Tuesday we made it to library time and played with the Thraps for a bit before our long piano night/dinner/bath without Daddy. Wednesday Asher had his Mom's day. This year he actually wanted me to be there and did not cry or push me away. Wednesday afternoon we were scheduled to close on our refinance but my friend Elise went into labor so she couldn't watch the kids. Thankfully my friend Sharon was coming into town for something and happened to call me to see if she could stop by, so she watched the kids! Super-amazing! Thursday I worked and took Asher to swim lessons. Friday I was feeling a bit under the weather so we stayed home as much as possible and had soup for dinner and watched the newest Harry Potter for movie night. I wish I could have gone to Twilight with the girls, but I have 6 kids a hubby who works long hours, is a Scout leader, moonlights, lectures.....

Today, well Josh gave a lecture this morning downtown, then went to BSA training, and is now at Priesthood Leadership training. They are going to announce a new stake presidency tomorrow and we are all excited/sad to see Pres. Nye, Thomas and Chapman go after 11 years..... Anyway while Josh has been gone I took Tristan and the kids to his basketball game, took the kids to the mall to do some Christmas shopping for Daddy and the grandparents (where did all the people come from?! seriously!) and now we are at home having "quiet" time (really they are fighting out in the garage whose door happens to be broken right now, of course, right! One more thing to shell out money I don't have). I have to be dressed and ready for Church at 6pm. Wish me super-luck!

Back to having 6 kids....I love children. I have posted about this several times before. But, honestly, having a large family can be lonely. I mean really none of my friends have as many littles as I do. I do have 2 friends who have 7 and 6 respectively, but they have teenagers now and several of them. I know teenage years are difficult but they do have extra hands to "help" or babysit, or even hands that can be left home alone for long periods of time. I am almost there but not yet. The dynamics of big families are different too. It takes me longer to get things done, or go places. It costs more. Instead of two kids fighting/not listening/crying...I have 6. It wears on me. Sometimes I am just tired and I don't want to stay out to midnight to see a show. A break for me is vegging in front of the tv or having a day with no laundry. I get left out of stuff cuz I have to many tag-a-longs or because we are loud and just take everything over...I don't get invited to playdates anymore or even have kids who get invited over to friends' houses that often. And that part is ok. Frankly, we have a few close friends who love us and understand our family and that is fine. It's easier than having a parade of people in and out the door to keep track of. And having people over? Well, I like it better when the whole family comes cuz it just easier to have more people to play with. Its hard to invite a friend for every kid and then figure out how they will all get here/home and make sure everyone is happy/not fighting. Plus, for our girls, I like friends who have loads of siblings because otherwise I here "the little girls are bothering us" the whole time the friend is over. And, that is well, exhausting. Kids from big families understand that no one has very much personal space in big families. I also have a child who has some very "special' needs and meeting them, and entertaining her, and keeping her friend happy too, is tiring as well.

I love my big family, but please understand that we are different than little families. Don't be too quick to judge..it really is a lot of fun and a great blessing too!

Tristan's 10th Birthday

My sister sent me a recipe for fondant a while ago. I was very hesitant to try, but decided now or never. So I made the cake on Monday. Tristan said he wanted an angry-bird. It was super-easy and I think it turned out nice for my first try! http://ashpashcreates.blogspot.com/2011/01/marshmallow-fondant.html

Tristan got Harry Potter Lego castle from us (and a new scooter) and the Night bus from his best friend Jack. He almost got a new coat, hat and gloves instead because he lost them for 5 days. But thankfully, for him, he found them just a few days before his birthday!

A DS game from Grandpa and Grandma Price and some Pokemon cards too

Webelos scout stuff

Money! From Grandpa and Grandma Stubz, G-ma, and G-pa Price and G-ma and G-pa Nadeau

Tristan turned 10 on Tuesday! Crazy to think 10 years ago, I was in a hospital delivering my first baby! Wow- how does time fly....Tristan is an amazing child who constantly surprises us with his wit and imagination. We have gone from a tiny boy with imaginary friends (Hemet and Berber Dick) to a kind young man who enjoys Legos, basketball, swimming, watching college football, reading, asking loads of questions, and yes, even helping with the babies. We celebrated with donuts for breakfast, hot lunch at school and dinner at Fudruckers (where they sing to you and you get a giant ice cream). Presents and cake were enjoyed at home after a long day! Then last night his bff stayed the night and today they are going to watch a movie at the theaters.

Ok, a few more..."Our personal advertisement for Hannas"

More of my favorites....

Some of my favorites....

Check out this picture of Laney Faye

My friend Christia took this photo. We had family pictures taken late last month and this is just a preview.....check out her work at

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ChristiaPalizziPhotography/184655628240336

I love it!

Laurel is 1 year old! Happy Birthday Sweet Thing!

Halloween cupcakes

All her presents

Play table

opening her stroller

wow! a teddy bear!

hey- I want to sit in there!

all better!

Our Halloween baby turned 1 year (where did it go?) on Monday! We celebrated with cheese pizza for dinner (she loves anything with cheese), and cupcakes. She got money from her great-grandparents, a dog named Violet from Grandpa and Grandma Stubz that sings to her and says her name, a baby stroller from Grandpa and Grandma Price which she loves to sit it, and a play table and pull toy from us. I think she was wandering why everyone sang to her all day long, but she soaked it up and smiled, and even cried a little, just to make sure she wasn't having too much fun!

We love her so much and are so grateful for the sweet baby she is. She sleeps all night, loves to snuggle, is crawling and climbing but not walking, loves dogs, hates the sippy cup, splashes in the tub and does not like to be thrown in the air! We cannot wait to see her personality grow and to hear the funny things that will come out of her mouth!

Halloween Carnival

Stubblefield crew

Asher

We carved our pumpkins for Monday Night FHE

A few years ago, I found these Potato Head pieces at Target. They are perfect for the Littles and no carving is needed.

Ciomara

Delaney

Laurel

My friend April's MIL has this very friendly parrot. Mel got to stand next to it, but it climbed right onto Tristan's arm! It also liked Josh. It wanted to sit high up on his shoulders!

Unfortunately Beggar's Night (the night we in Iowa Trick-or-Treat...not Halloween), fell on Sunday this year and we decided to not Trick-or-Treat, but we did allow our kids to pass out candy to the neighborhood kids. So, the Young Men/Young Women put together a Halloween Carnival on Saturday for the kids at Church. It was quite the event for us since Josh had a big portion in organizing and decorating. All my decorations ended up there, along with 200 cake pops that we worked together on, candy, cookies, pumpkin guts and even my dining room table!

The Carnival was setup in the gym with face painting, a cake walk, scary things to touch/a floating head (Josh's booth), Angry Birds, donut eating, coloring and Trunk-OR-Treat around the classrooms. We got plenty of treats and candy..enough to last us a few weeks....The kids had a great time and stuffed themselves.

Afterwards we went home, rested up and then went to the Healthy Halloween at the YMCA. We Trick-or-Treated there for trinket toys, and a trail mix snack. Plus we got to see a fire engine, ambulance and the fire safety house-on-wheels...It was a super-busy and tiring day.

ps. Lest you think our kids got jipped this year...Iowa celebrates Halloween the ENTIRE month of October so our kids got to Trick-Or-Treat at Hyvee (the grocery store) and make Halloween crafts at the library, and even had school Halloween parties. Plenty of Halloween-celebrating......

pps. Why Pirates? Well, we got them on clearance after last year...and it just so happened the new Pirates movie came out recently on DVD..sooo perfect combination! And, we have mutiny almost every day...so why not?